Sowing seed

Years ago, a local, fellow flower lover introduced me to blooming blackberry lilies along the side of her house in Leonard.

Love at first sight, the plant’s name puzzled me. For this obviously wasn’t your common, larger tiger lily that grew wild amongst blackberry bushes along serpentine Appalachian roads of my childhood.

Mmmm…there’s nothing more delicious on a hot summer day than wild blackberry cobbler with a scoop of vanilla ice cream.

To further endear me to the diminutive, freckled-faced blackberry lily, the plant belongs to the Iris domestica family.

Yet, I perceived no resemblance of the plant to a blackberry.

My flower friend explained, “It’s the seed pod. The bloom fades in late summer and forms a cluster of round black seeds that resemble a blackberry.

But whatever you do, don’t eat the seeds. They’re mildly toxic to humans and pets.” Good to know.

Therefore, she dug up a few spades full of lily tubers and placed them in a plastic bag.

“Your timing is perfect, Iris. We’re moving up north next week.”

I regretted losing my flower buddy. “Where’s the best place to plant them?” I asked.

“Full sun where they have room to spread. Leave the bloom on the stem for it to go to seed. You’ll soon have enough seed to sow and give away,” she said.

She spoke the whole truth and nothing but the truth.

Several summers later, a fit to thin the blackberry lily from my garden seized me. I left not one bloom to seed, or one root to sprout, and lived to regret it.

Recently, I mentioned this to Ruth when I helped her pack up her house for her move to California. For I’d given Ruth some blackberry lily roots, yet saw no evidence of a blackberry lily growing around her house.

“Mom, I gave a neighbor your blackberry lily roots. She planted them and told me she has some seeds for you.”

Indeed, her neighbor, another fellow flower lover, met us in her front yard where the little blackberry lily plant grows in full sun amongst shrubbery.

Ruth’s neighbor held a little plastic bag labeled “Blackberry Lily 2025 from ‘Iris’ garden”.

Plenty for reintroducing the blackberry lily to my gardens.

Therefore, dear Reader, yesterday I visited my favorite local garden nursery and returned home with organic potting soil and biodegradable trays including ID stakes.

After I sowed the seeds and used one ID stake for the six trays (as if I’m going to forget what I’d planted), I aimed to sow every little, round black seed from the tiny zip-lock bag.

Cleaned and filled with organic potting soil, I sowed seed in several flower pots that over-wintered in my basement.

Thirty-some blackberry lily seeds remain to sow for those seeds that fail to germinate.

If that’s not enough, I know who has my back. I just hope Ruth’s neighbor doesn’t move out of town before I prove my garden mettle worth her gift of reciprocity.

Contact Iris at irisfarmletters@gmail.com